the year of 24

I turned 24 today.

Gone are the days of being 23. It was a good birthday thinking back. The day started (at 12am) with me watching the second half of the Rugby World Cup game between Wales and Fiji - I was going for Fiji - and the Fijians actually won! (this was the first time they have qualified - or something like that). So that was cool.

It was then time for bed followed by a big day at church. We had City Evangelism today which, as usual, was a blessing. But this time round, instead of going out there in the 'battlefield', a few of us decided to pray instead (the prayer team, at the time, was harnessing the power of one).

This was the first time I joined the prayer team and to be honest, I started off thinking - Oh man, how am I supposed to pray for two and a half hours??!?!? What have I gotten myself into??!! But knowing that it had to be done, we split into pairs and got down on our knees (not literally, that could've been painful).

It was really incredible, despite only having three calls of help from the field, we managed to be led by the Spirit to pray for different things the whole time. It was actually good to have had a background of going out to evangelise previously because while praying, I kept thinking about the struggles I would usually have going out there on a normal non-praying day, and then I could pray really specifically for such things for all of my brothers and sisters. For example, when I got out usually, I am always facing the struggle of finding people to talk to and getting tired toward the end. So we prayed that people would always have people to talk to and toward the end, we prayed that people would have the energy to keep going.

Hour after hour passed and before we knew it, Wendy (our super-duper prayer co-ordinator) was telling us there was only one more round left! The time had seriously gone by REALLY fast. I really thank God for the testimony time afterwards because it was really encouraging to hear about what had happened in the city.

Things we had been praying for had actually been answered! For example, we prayed that Christians would be encouraged while they saw us evangelising in the city - and then Aunty Lehia shared that she met a Christian lady who saw us, was encouraged by it, and even wanted to sign up for the next CE! Another example was that we prayed that God would lead our soldiers to people who had received a tract previously or have had someone share the gospel with them before. People shared that people they talked to had:

--> received a tract that morning while walking along the Swan River
--> gone to church for the first time that morning and
--> received three tracts that afternoon alone

There were other examples, but I just wanted to share a few to show how awesome God works. I was so encouraged. It not only made me really wish that I could have been part fo the prayer meetings in the Spurgeon and Wesley eras, but it also really added to my burden to evangelise! (Praying about this world's need to get saved for two and a half hours will do that to you!)

After the sharing, we sat down to a church-cooked meal prepared by some loving sisters and then some of us went to Gelare's for coffee afterwards.

All in all, it was a day spent for the Lord and I just pray that more days will be spent similarly in the coming year!

procrastinator extraordinaire

If there is one thing that I truly excel in - it's procrastinating. I am an expert - if there was a delay-city I would be the mayor - seriously.

To my credit, I am a lot better than I used to be. In my student years, I was a shocker - thank God that things like Facebook and blogs weren't around (or at least I didn't know about such things) in those days. But even without those time-wasters, I still managed to avoid studying, readings etc. There was always something that 'had' to be done - like examinating every hair on my head to remove any split-ends (-_-)

For all those people out there who can relate, here are some verses to reflect on...

Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be put to forced labor.

Proverbs 18:9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

Proverbs 21:25 The desire of the slothful kills him; for his hands refuse to labor.

Proverbs 24:33-34 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall your poverty come like a robber; and your want like an armed man.

Proverbs 6:6-8 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Who having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provides her food in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

Hehehe.. So for those people who are reading this blog and really should be doing something else (including myself - there is a seriously messy room that needs cleaning) - STOP PROCRASTINATING!

Thankyou Lord for Your convicting Word.
Please help me to be more diligent and hard-working for Your glory.

30in30 - quick draw

This post is inspired by my brother who shared with us at the commencement of 30in30, about the quick-draw concept... Being the first to 'tract' someone, before they (or someone else) gets the chance to tract you (or them).

Yesterday while taking MinYan and Julia to King's Park, Truc was talking to a lady about flowers when she quickly said to me 'gonna get my tracts from the car' before running off into the distance in the direction of the carpark. The lady then started talking to me about flowers and I took the opportunity to pass her my tract. Rowena wins the quick-draw against Truc :) - lesson learnt: Always carry your tracts with you!

Today while at KFC, Caleb and I were ordering at one counter and John and Michelle at the other. As I got out my tract to pass to our KFC cashier, Caleb saw me and said 'let me have this one, I'm really behind' - being his older sister, the nurturing nature prevailed and I 'holstered my weapon'. It was while I was doing that, that I saw my next victim... John and Michelle's KFC cashier! (sneaky I know) Before they could think twice, I pulled out my tract and passed it to the cashier! The quick-draw takes another victim! Lesson learnt: Take your opportunities before opportunistic people take them for you!

Apologies to Truc and the Tans! Be quicker next time! :D

enjoying the sunshine...

What a beautiful Perth day it was today... Absolutely magnificant. We were supposed to head down to Araluen - but due to the report of being less than satisfactory levels of tulips, and the threat of rain earlier in the morning, we decided against that idea nd went instead to crash the Combined Meeting for Y180 and CYPG. We then went for lunch and then King's Park - armed with our Cameras and our best Blue Steel poses.... These were the results :)

The 'evidence' of activites that followed in the evening will come at a later date - possibly after the 'star' of the evening has moved to another country and will therefore be too far away to thump me for posting photos!

varekai - been there, done that

Did the whole Varekai thing tonight. And although it was a bit short and I didn't really know what was going on, I enjoyed it. Was it worth the $85 spent? - some would say yes, others no - but I say money spent will always have an opportunity cost, so don't sweat the small stuff!

The three little 'boys' (one turned out to be a girl!), the juggling guy, and the human juggling were the highlights for me - I kept thinking Worker's Comp throughout the whole thing! The costumes were amazing (the Mums must've spent ages sewing in front of the telly hehe). Lowlights were the food/drink/everything-else prices and the guy sitting near me who had a serious case of the house of B.O. in the second half.

Overall it was a great night out spent with the group of predominantly young working adults from Regen and CYPG (these are the only ones who could afford it hehe). It was a great experience and was truly entertaining - all the way. But I wouldn't say that I'm dying to see the next one that comes into town (though to see it would be nice) - I have been there and done that.

birds

It's 11:30pm and there are birds chirping outside my window - they must be broken or something - that's just not right...

God has a strange sense of humour sometimes.

more encouragement than you can poke a stick at

I was so encouraged last night. Some of the best fellowship I've had for a while.

At Regeneration, we listened to what I would now rank as one of the top 3 sermons that have impacted me in my life - Paris Reidhead's 'Ten Shekels and a Shirt'. (I was telling my bros last night on the way home that the other two were probably 'Five Steps to Genuine Revival' by Iain Paisley, and 'Regeneration & Self-Denial' by the Washer Machine (Paul Washer) - I haven't given THAT much thought into my top 3 picks, but there you have it). If you haven't listened to the Tens Shekels sermon, you need to - seriously. It has absolutely changed my perspective on evangelism and has (as Reidhead says in the sermon) 'reversed everything' and 'righted it all'. After listening to this sermon a few times, the penny has finally dropped and my understanding of evangelism and a lot of other things has changed and deepened.

Some statements and points that stood out for me in the sermon include:

• Humanism - aims for the happiness of man
• Christianity - aims for the glorification of God
• God intended to make man happy as a by-product, not a prime-product
• God is an ends, not just a means
• We evangelise for God's sake, not for us or the souls we witness to - He endured the agonies of Hell for all the people on earth and as such, He deserves the reward of His suffering
• We shouldn't try to make a deal with God... We should obey Him all the way - even if (after all is said and done) He chooses to send us to Hell - we should be OK with that because that is what we ultimately deserved in the first place
• People go to Hell, not because they didn't hear the Gospel, but because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve Hell
• A repentant heart is a heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of playing god and denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience He deserves!
• The only way for God to get glory out of a man is if he comes to the cross (Galations 2:20)
• God should not just be our fuel... He should be in the driver's seat.
• It's not what you are going to get out of God, it's what He is going to get out of You
• Moravian Evangelism Catch-cry: May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering

What was also encouraging was the testimonies that were shared at the 30in30 meeting after Regeneration - the way that God has moved in this month so far has been sooooooo awesome. 30in30 has been such a blessing to so many people and I am just so happy to be a part of it and to be so blessed as to have the privilege of hearing such testimonies (you can check them out here!).

To top it all off, a group of us headed over to Fast Eddy's in Cannington for supper and had some really great fellowship once again! We talked about the sermon, 30in30, evangelism ideas, and Lilian and Selina also got the opportunity to share the Gospel! I think we were having true Christian fellowship for the whole time that we were there and it was truly such a blessing.

Thank God for brothers and sisters in Christ and the blessing of fellowship!!

30in30 - another one!

I tracted my bus driver again today... This is what happened:

Me: Here, this is for you - you can have a read when your shift ends! It's a Gospel Tract!
Peter (the 794 bus driver): About Jesus I hope!
Me: *stunned mullet expression*
Peter (the 794 bus driver): I'm a Christian!
Me: Really? That's great, well maybe you can pass it on to one of your friends
Peter (the 794 bus driver): Thanks. I will!
Me: Thanks! Have a great day!
Peter (the 794 bus driver): shouts while driving off into the sunset God bless you!

This has happened before. Christians tracted (and enouraged) so far: 3 (Praise God!)

prayer meeting - what happened to the good old days?

Whatever happened to Prayer Meeting? It seems that recently, there have been less and less people going to prayer meeting. Tonight there were 7 people from Regeneration and Youth180. I think even the CYPGs had less people than they usually would have.

I realised the paucity of attendance when I was talking to Truc and Dorcas saying that the upper sanctuary used to be so full of lots of small groups of twos and threes praying. Today there were just the three of us.

I am definitely guilty of being a prayer-meeting-skipperer in the past year or so, but since trying to come more regularly I have noticed this change in the scene. For me, the biggest barrier is the great tiredness monster that plagues me regularly (it's fed by my occasional insomnia, and seems to be strongest on Tuesday nights for some reason - funny that). So I don't mean to try to make people feel bad about not going to Prayer Meeting at all (cos let's just say that I wouldn't exactly be one of the fore-runners for a best-attendance award if there was one), but rather I want to encourage people to go.

The opportunity to pray with sisters in Christ is such a great blessing that I often take for granted. Every Tuesday I go through the mental to-go-or-not-to-go shuffle. And when I end up going, sharing my prayer requests, praying and getting prayed for - I wonder why I hesitated so much to go. The peace that comes from passing your burdens to God and helping others do so by praying for them is a truly matchless feeling, that I know God has reserved for His children because He is just so caring and loving to us (who are SOOOO undeserving).

It's kinda sad when I think about how many people used to go to prayer meeting as opposed to nowadays. I guess when you know something is good, you want to share it with everyone and when people just don't seem to see how good it is or realise the blessings they're missing out on, you can't help but feel a little disappointed. Well I do anyway.

The other thing is that the driving force behind revival is of course PRAYER - and if a church's prayer meeting is empty, then so are the chances for revival, really. If there's one thing that the preachers and teachers from the Old School (like Spurgeon, Wesley, Lewis, Sanders) have taught us - it is that the power of prayer can NOT be underestimated. God is real. Prayer is powerful. And revival will always be far from us if we don't realise these truths! So give prayer meeting a go! If anything, it will help kick start your prayer life (something a lot of us, me included, struggle with).

Well that's my two cents worth about that...

30in30 - full of surprises!

This post is a little delayed but here it is anyways... On Friday afternoon, I jumped on the Red CAT bus in the city. When I got on, the bus driver smiled at me and as I stood on the bus, I started thinking if I should tract the bus driver. So after a quick prayer (as well as reminding myself that he did smile at me and he did look pretty friendly - so he was more likely to take the tract), I passed him a tract saying 'this is for you - hope you read it when you get the chance'.

When he took it, his smile got larger and he said 'Praise the Lord! I'm a believer too!'. I said 'Really?!?!' and then he said, 'in fact, I am a Pastor of a Church!'. I can't remember what I said after that but I was genuinely surprised - and absoultely encouraged (as he was too I'm sure!).

30in30 is full of surprises!

PS - 1 minute after getting off the CAT bus I was tracted by a young Korean girl from a Presbyterian church! Double-dose of encouragement! Thankyou God! You knew just what I needed and gave it just when I needed it!

facebook

I will be the first to admit that this blog has been neglected slightly due to the distraction that is...

Yep. This has been keeping me occupied every night for at least an hour as I get caught up in looking up how someone knows someone else who knows someone else. Perth is a very small place! It's nice to see how people have changed over the years (for better or for worse) and it has been good catching up with people that I haven't spoken to for ages and ages.

Might be a good way to share the Gospel with people too somehow - still trying to learn how to use it for good. Anyone got any ideas??

I gotta keep an eye out about this facebook thing - I just want to make sure that I don't spend too much time on this new little hobby. There's a fine line between hobby and obsession!

revival hymn

Transcript can be found here.

This touches me every time I see it. This part in particular was the clincher for me:

Christianity says... "The end of all being is the glory of God."
Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."

This is the betrayal of the ages!!

And it's the betrayal in which we live and I don't see how God can revive it!
Until we come back to Christianity.

Isn't man happy?
And God intends to make you happy. But as a by-product and not a prime product.

Now I ask you, what is the philosophy of mission? What is the philosophy of evangelism? What is the philosophy of a Christian? If you’ll ask me why I went to Africa, I’ll tell you I went primarily, to improve on the justice of God. I didn’t think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved. And so I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to Heaven.

Now, I hadn’t put it in so many words. But if you’ll analyze what I just told you, do you know what it is? It’s humanism. But I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery.

And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren’t poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods, waiting for, looking for someone to tell them how to go to Heaven. That they were monsters of iniquity. They were living in utter and total defiance, of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew.

And when I found that out, I assure you, I was so angry with God that one occasion in prayer, I told him that it was a mighty, little thing He’d done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to Heaven and when I got there I found out they knew about Heaven, didn’t wanna go there. And they loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.

I went out there motivated by humanism. I’d seen pictures of lepers. I’d seen pictures of ulcers. I’d seen pictures of native funerals. And I didn’t want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally, after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism.

And it was that day in my bedroom, with the door locked, that I wrestled with God. For here was... I was coming to grips with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to Heaven, and were saying "someone come and teach us" actually didn’t wanna take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the bible and no interest in Christ. And they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I’d been sold a bill of goods. And I wanted to come home.

And there alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt, it seemed to me I heard Him say, "Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they’re going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel. They’re going to go to hell because they are sinners who loved... their ..sin.. and because they deserved hell. But, I didn’t send you out there for them, I didn't send you out there for their sakes."

And I heard as clearly as I’ve ever heard though it wasn’t with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this:

"I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved hell but I love them and I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for Me. Do I not deserve the reward of My suffering? Don't I deserve those for whom I died?"

And it reversed it all. It changed it all and righted it all. And I wasn't any longer working for my cup and ten shekels and a shirt but I was serving the living God.

the shadow-meister

This is cool. I remember me and my bros trying to do this whenever my Dad would put on slideshows (the oldschool type with holiday pics etc). I did a pretty mean rabbit, but it was definitely never as good as this. Now this is what I call talent!